Essential Phone

For a brand with no track record of making smartphones, the Essential Phone is an intriguing first attempt. 

It’s going for the long game by offering a phone that, in theory, doesn’t have to be tossed aside, trashed or traded in after just a year of use. Part of that comes from its timeless design that signifies that it belongs in tomorrow as much as it does today. Another fork of that stems from Essential’s plan to bring many modular accessories to the phone, thus expanding its capabilities as the months go by.

Update: The Essential Phone is sitting pretty on our definitive list of the best Android phones that you can buy right now. Even before its recent price drop, which lowered the price down to $200 less than when it initially launched, it comes recommended for some. But now, it's way easier to do so. Keep a look-out for extra special discounts during the holiday season, starting with Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Right away, the PH-1, as it’s officially called, makes clear that it isn’t “just another Android smartphone”. But in its efforts to stand out as something essential for today’s innovation-starved audience, the offering here couldn’t be more refreshing – or divisive.

It’s a confident melding of glass and ceramic that seems rather basic in what it’s trying to attempt, but it’s hiding a few tricks up its sleeve. For those with small hands, the amount of screen that Essential has packed into the compact package is astounding. 

Speaking of the nearly bezel-free display, it’s one of the phone’s big conversation-sparking features. Its pairing of design and software also rivals Google’s own smartphones. But for something that claims to be “essential” at launch, it presumes a hell of a lot about its audience: that for every desirable feature the PH-1 contains, which there are certainly a few, you hopefully won’t notice that it’s missing many must-have features. 

Things like waterproofing, expandable storage, wireless charging and a 3.5mm headphone jack are essential to many, but nowhere to be found here. Oh, and its modular accessories? You’ll just have to trust that the company is committed to bringing more down the line, as its debut 360-degree camera accessory took longer than expected to release.

For all that the Essential Phone does right, it’s rather short on reasons to back up its high $699 price tag (no UK price confirmed at this time) compared to the seriously intimidating competition it put itself up against: the iPhone 8, Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and Google Pixel 2, just to name a few.

However, thanks to its brilliant, timeless design, plenty of power, and the promise of modular accessories, the Essential Phone is an Android phone that will only get better with time. That is, if you’re patient enough to watch it grow.

Essential Phone price and release date

• Available now in the US, coming later this year in UK
• Starts at $699, goes up with optional accessory
• You can try it in person at Sprint stores starting 9/14

The Essential Phone originally debuted in the United States starting at $699 unlocked. If you’re a Sprint customer (or a prospective one) and qualify, you can get an extra $260 off the phone, which puts the price within reach of those who usually can’t afford a high-end unlocked device.

Now Essential has also dropped the price of the phone to only $499, which makes it far more affordable than it was at launch.

Essential has confirmed that the PH-1 will come to UK later in 2017, though it hasn’t stated a launch price. If we’re going off of conversions alone, that puts it at £535, but given that Essential has backing by major US companies, like Sprint and Amazon, it’s hard to say if the same price applies globally.

Design

• The bezels-be-gone design really impresses
• A timeless look and feel
• High-end build materials give this small phone some heft

The Essential Phone is a feat of engineering in that it somehow manages to fit a 5.7-inch 2,560 x 1,312 display into a chassis that’s not much larger. Stacked up against the Google Pixel XL, the it’s roughly the same size in the hand, but there’s so much more screen here.

Essential has taken bezel reduction to a new level. You’ll find a rather small bezel “chin” on the bottom of the phone, but the screen nearly spills over the top of it, where you’ll find the selfie camera. This feat is all the more impressive because the LCD display wraps around the front-facing camera instead of shoving it to the bottom like Xiaomi Mi Mix. That phone’s “nostril camera”, as Essential’s Andy Rubin calls it, makes for awkward selfies.

Essential opted for a titanium frame, which it claims offers much higher durability (and heft) compared to the oft-used aluminum we see in many smartphones. This means, theoretically, it shouldn’t break or bend under circumstances wherein most phones do. On the phone’s outside, Essential covered it all up in ultra-glossy ceramic, which looks fantastic and feels cool to the touch, but is oh-so inviting to your fingerprints.

Around the phone’s edges, Essential has cleverly implemented a grippy material that doubles as its antenna passthrough. While you won’t find a 3.5mm headphone jack on this phone (Essential provides a USB-C to 3.5mm converter in the box), the usual assortment of volume rocker, power button and USB-C charging port make their appearance here. The tactile buttons are simple to find and have a nice click to them.

The backside of the phone is as flat as the front and is so devoid of any markings that there's not even an Essential logo anywhere on the device. It’s a way of Essential saying “this isn’t our phone, it’s your phone.” On our way up, there’s a fingerprint sensor in an easy-to-reach location, flanked on its top by a dual-lens camera, flash and Essential’s accessory connector ports, the latter of which we’ll touch on below.

Essential has announced that its "Pure White" color variant is also now available, bringing the options to two: black and white. We're still waiting on the third and fourth colors, "Stellar Grey" and "Ocean Depths", but until then, at least there's an option available that doesn't show so many fingerprints. 

Interface and reliability

• Stock Android Nougat is perfect for purists
• Android Oreo confirmed to arrive by year's end

Whether you’re coming from a previous Android phone or perhaps an iPhone, the learning curve for the Essential Phone is essentially non-existent.

The PH-1 runs a stock version of Android Nougat 7.1.1 and is said to be introducing Android Oreo to its users by the end of 2017. But focusing on the now, stock Android Nougat puts the new company in favorable position for those who enjoy an experience free of bloatware and user interface tweaks. All of that time saved by not having to remove pre-installed apps lets you quickly build up your app arsenal and even load a custom launcher if you please.

Given the Essential Phone’s roots in stock Android, all of its tricks are at your disposal the moment it comes out of the box. Two simultaneous presses of the power button boots into the camera, holding the on-screen home button cues up Google Assistant, and lastly, the phone comes loaded with only the (pardon me) essential apps. Seriously, it comes with just a few handfuls of Google-made apps and that’s it.

Movies, music and gaming

• Full Display doesn't impact multimedia, for better or worse
• 128GB of onboard storage is a good step forward, but lacks microSD support
• The omission of a 3.5mm headphone port is always disappointing

When it comes to smartphones, more of something is usually better. That is, unless it’s bezels, but that’s uniquely not much of an issue for the Essential Phone.

Compared to most smartphones its size, the PH-1 packs in more screen and not just that, it hugs the top edge of the screen in such a way that it will either enhance or hurt the immersive experience of games and movies. And the bit of good news and bad news is that it does neither. While most of the apps built into the phone make use of the extended aspect ratio, almost all of the apps we tried from the Google Play Store cut off the top sliver of screen, making the experience fairly traditional looking.

Unlike the LG G6, LG V30, Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Samsung Galaxy S8 and more, the Essential Phone contains no options to zoom into an app to make it scale to its aspect ratio. It’s likely this could be fixed in the future, but not without risk of chopping out vital information for many apps. This means that, for now, movies and games will look as they do on traditional displays.

Of course, if you want to listen to what you’re viewing or listening to, you’ll need to connect the USB-C to 3.5mm adaptor, as Essential has lopped off the legacy port that many still consider to be essential, no pun intended. Take this how you will, but in our experience, connecting a dongle is always more of a pain than it is an inspiring sign of forward progress from a technical perspective. 

Performance, specs and benchmarks

• A lot of power in a small form factor
• Doesn't run Google Daydream VR
• Not the best value in terms of performance

Something that we can all agree on is that solid performance is an essential component of a good smartphone. Thankfully, the PH-1 has it in spades. Equipped with the Snapdragon 835 and 4GB of RAM, this smartphone is poised to tackle the apps of today and tomorrow in stride.

During our time with the Essential Phone, it was fully able to stand up to the rigors of our usual workload. That is, a mix of gaming during the commute, music listening, e-mail checking and the odd camera opportunity. Despite its small size, we’re pleased that the PH-1 puts up performance that we’re accustomed to only seeing with bigger phones.

That said, what it won’t be able to handle is Google Daydream since the phone doesn’t come with the requisite OLED screen technology and while it almost meets the 2K mark, it falls just short at 2,560 x 1,312.

In terms of benchmark scores, the phone puts up numbers nearly as good in Geekbench 4 as we’ve seen in the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and other phones with the Snapdragon 835 processor. Sure, the PH-1 doesn’t have 6GB of RAM that some of the others do, but that doesn’t seem to stand it in its way during benchmarks or during normal use, for that matter.

Accessories

This accessory port is one of the most captivating tricks of the Essential Phone that gives it a big advantage over the competition, but it hasn’t taken flight yet. As mentioned earlier, we’ve only just now received a 360-degree camera unit to test out, so we can only assume that those who pre-ordered the phone are just now trying it out, too.

In our experience, the camera performs as advertised and couldn’t be more simple to attach. Once snapped on, it can record in 2K or 4K resolution. The PH-1 powers the accessory, while the data streams over a Wi-Fi connection created between the two devices. At times, the connection feed looks fuzzy, but the recorded footage doesn’t reflect much or any aliasing. 

The 360 camera is currently available for $179 through Essential’s online shop, but is it worth it? If you’re dying to get some use with the accessory port, then yes. It performs admirably and so long as you mind the battery pitfall it can cause, then it’s about as cheap as 360-degree cameras get.

Given the slow rollout of its first accessory, we have reservations about the Essential Phone’s accessory port, those two holes aligned with the rear camera array. We’re told that Essential will be frequently introducing new accessories (not mods, likely in a bid to avoid comparison with Motorola’s Moto Mods), but considering the difficulty of following through with such an ambitious promise, only time will tell if Essential’s roadmap for expandable accessories stays a steady path.

Battery life

• 3,040mAh capacity is respectable, if a bit small
• Has no issue lasting all day long
• Accessories drain it quickly

For such a small device, the Essential Phone packs in a load of technology. That sentiment extends past its processor, 128GB of onboard storage, boundary-pushing screen and onto its battery, which is a respectable 3,040mAh. 

We’ve seen larger batteries in phones of this size, but when you’ve got a nearly bezel-less screen, space for more battery (or anything, for that matter) becomes a commodity. That said, this capacity helps the PH-1 easily reach its day-long target no matter how you like to use the phone. Of course, there are caveats to this.

We’ve heard reports that the 360-degree camera accessory does suck a lot of power from the phone, and in our testing, it really does. Over the course of an hour, using it non-stop tanked the battery from 50% to 0% and in the process, overheated to the point that it needed to be removed.

During our benchmark, the PH-1’s battery drained down to 78% after playing back a 90-minute FHD video file. This discharge is fairly typical amongst many smartphones, and in our time with the phone, it easily withstood the rest of our day’s worth of multimedia demands.

If you’re an infrequent phone user, we found the discharge to be nice and slow. Expect to get two days or maybe more of battery life if you don’t utilize many social media or gaming apps.

Thankfully, it doesn’t take all that long to bring the PH-1 back from the dead. It can be powered up at just 1% charge and it takes ten minutes to bring it up to 15%. Give it another hour and it will raise up to about 85%. An hour and a half brings it to full charge, which isn’t bad at all.

Camera

• Impressive f/1.85 aperture gives more light to the night
• Mono mode produces evocative results
• Software incredibly sluggish to capture and low on features

Essential has directed a lot of energy to showing off what it’s dual-lens array is capable of. Each lens is 13MP, though one is capable of shooting in color as well as black and white, while the other is a dedicated monochrome lens. 

We’ve now had more time to try the PH-1 in a variety of settings and while the capabilities of the cameras aren’t as apparent as, say, the Google Pixels or that of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, we’re pretty pleased.

However, if you’re reading about the camera for the PH-1, you’re likely seeing some alarming points, like that it takes too long to boot the camera app and that it’s slow to capture a photo. Unfortunately, both of those are true. Despite the power under the hood, modifying basically any setting causes frustration-inducing stuttering.

Given Essential’s commitment to improving the PH-1 over time, we wouldn’t be surprised to see these issues ironed out soon, but until then, people in need of a good pocket camera are served better elsewhere. But that doesn’t mean this phone can’t take a good photo.

The f/1.85 aperture of the phone’s main lens does a respectable job in low-light, but isn’t perfect. Generally, the photo and video quality of the PH-1’s cameras are stellar, but are prone to blurring due to the sheer amount of time required to snap a single photo.

In our expanded carousel, enjoy some samples that show off what it’s capable of. We’ve also included some photo and video examples shot through the 360-degree camera accessory.

Below, here's a taste of what the 360 Camera can do. We definitely look forward to bringing this along to events.

The Essential phone offers a lot of promise thanks to its expandable accessory port, stock Android interface and nearly bezel-less screen design. It’s also one of the most powerful compact phones we’ve ever tested, even though it has a 5.7-inch display. It feels smaller and bigger at the same time.

The problem is it doesn’t fulfill every one of Andy Rubin’s promises – not yet at least. His new Essential company may eventually create a long-lasting smartphone with many useful accessories and expand its use cases, where it stands in its early days leaves too many blanks unfilled. It’s a great looking, slick functioning phone, but its steep price and what Essential deems to be essential isn’t much more than the bare necessities.

Who's this for?

For those in need of an elegantly designed Android smartphone, look no further. Essential’s dedication of squeezing so much tech into a smartphone is admirable, as is its simple and clean interface.

If the idea of buying into a smartphone that will evolve by way of its accessory port over time is appealing, this is a solid choice, but not the cheapest one next from the Moto Z2 Force, which has had more time to prove itself on the modular accessories front.

Should I buy it?

The Essential Phone is impressive in many ways. At the same time, it’s a bit of a let down – though most things under this level of hype suffer a similar fate.

Hype aside, the PH-1 seems to have a solid grasp on the bare essentials of what a flagship Android smartphone should be. But other new options, like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG V30 totally outclass it in terms of value and feature set.

If its lack of headphone jack, waterproofing, expandable storage and wireless charging aren’t deal breakers for you, the Essential Phone is a solid choice today that only stands to grow into an even more essential product. But for others, it's hard to recommend outright unless its price falls.